AS THE US debates whether gun control should be tightened, we speak to two people on opposing sides of the argument to ask what they think should happen.

TEACHERS should be armed so they can protect their pupils, according to pro-gun campaigner Larry Pratt.

The executive director of Gun Owners of America said: “Schools are the one remaining area where people in the US are legally prohibited from having firearms.

“As a result, when the shooting happened the other morning in Newtown, Connecticut, there was no one else with a gun except the shooter.”

Pratt compared Friday’s tragedy to another at a shopping centre near Portland in Oregon last Tuesday, where a gunman killed two people.

He said: “A gun owner came forward when he heard shooting.

“He ran towards the sound of the gun, saw the shooter – and when the shooter saw him, he killed himself.

“That’s when the shooting stopped – when the other person, with the gun, was able to come on the scene.”

Pratt, 70, also rejects the idea that the way to tackle mass shootings is to restrict the availability of guns.

He said: “Connecticut is at the more restrictive end of the spectrum in the US regarding gun control laws.

“We know from years and years of studying crime data that you are a safer in a jurisdiction like Wyoming – where everyone probably has two guns in their truck and another on themselves – than you are in New York City – where the only person likely to have a gun, besides the policeman, who may not be anywhere near where you and the criminal are, is the criminal.”

Pratt added: “There is another dimension to this matter in the US.

“We own firearms primarily not because of self-defence but because of defence against our government.

“The reason the US became the US, and is no longer a colony of Her Majesty, is because when His Majesty, as it was, became dictatorial, we were able to resist with our firearms.”

Anti guns

OPPONENTS of guns hope the tragedy in Connecticut will finally lead to changes in US firearm laws.

Grieving Scots dad David Grimason has been calling for tighter controls on the trade of weapons since his two-year-old son Alistair was killed on a family holiday in 2003.

The toddler was asleep in his pram when a gunfight broke out at a cafe in Turkey.

David said: “Some people believe the tragedy could have been lessened if teachers had been armed. But I don’t think shootouts are the answer.

“The safest situation is for people not to have weapons, or for weapons not to be so accessible.

“As we know, weapons are very accessible in the US at the moment.

“It sometimes takes a tragedy for people to realise that changes need to happen. Hopefully the Obama administration will be brave enough to see that changes are made. They are up against a really powerful gun lobby and it is perhaps the mindset which needs to be changed in America.

“Perhaps people need to stop hearing that guns are OK and that people need them to protect themselves.

“This is the kind of propaganda which has sunk into people’s minds.

“Ultimately, all that an individual is protecting themselves from is the next person with a weapon.”

David, 41, travelled to the United Nations headquarters in New York in July as part of a group from Oxfam campaigning for a global arms treaty.

He added: “When I was in New York, there was a terrible incident in Colorado and gun sales went up by 50 per cent in the next few days.

“I think people felt they had to protect themselves from others with weapons.

“In the UK, we had the incident at Dunblane – and we, as a nation, got together and changed the laws.

“Maybe this terrible tragedy will be the one which pushes a brave President to take action.”